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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

WV Film Fest this weekend.

The West Virginia Film Festival is this weekend in Sutton, WV.

Director and friend to WV Writers Daniel Boyd will have a film showing there called Secrets of the Valley.

Secrets of the Valley blends the sciences of archeology with oral traditions of Native Americans for a rare journey back through time. Join Morgan Spurlock as the Cultural Resource Analysts Team excavates a history-rich dig near the Marmet Locks.

WV Film Festival 2010
http://wvff.art.officelive.com/default.aspx












http://wvff.art.officelive.com/default.aspx

Glimmer Train - September 30 deadline




FICTION OPEN Follow glimmertrain on Twitter

Deadline: September 30

Prizes:
1st place wins $2,000, publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies.
2nd-place: $1,000 and possible publication.
3rd-place: $600 and possible publication.
Other considerations:
Open to all writers.
We welcome any length from 2,000 to 20,000 words. (Don't worry: A great 2,000 word story can compete against a great 20,000 word story. It's the story that counts.)
Reading fee is $18 per story.
Results post on November 30. Winning story will be published in Issue 81.
Make a Submission
We look forward to reading your work!

Editors
Glimmer Train Stories, represented in recent editions of the Pushcart Prize,
O. Henry, New Stories from the South, New Stories from the Midwest, and
Best American Short Stories anthologies.

Call for submissions: CALYX

(News courtesy of R.S. White)


CALYX, A Journal of Art and Literature by Women will open for submissions of poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction on October 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.
Please send up to six poems or 2,500 words of prose, SASE, and a short bio to:

CALYX Journal
PO Box B
Corvallis, OR 97339

For 34 years CALYX Journal has been a creative forum for women's diverse voices showcasing work from new and emerging writers and artists.

Visit our website www.calyxpress.org/submission for full guidelines.

Friday, September 24, 2010

WV Writers Podcast #41 Now Online

We return with Episode 41 of the WV Writers Podcast, another of our patent-pending recorded live readings (Q: "But if it's recorded, how can it be live?" A: "Shhhh. Don't you worry your purty little head.")

This recorded live reading comes from the September 16th Literary Tea session at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre in Lewisburg. WV Writers' featured reader is poet Miles Dean, honorable mention in the Humor Category of the 2010 WVW Annual Writing Contest as well as voted the 1st place winner in poetry for the Writers Wall at the 2010 Summer Conference.

The Literary Tea series continues October 7 and October 14. They take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Greenbrier Valley Theatre in downtown Lewisburg.

If you're a member or extended friend of WV Writers, Inc. we invite you to submit your own recorded live readings to wvwpodcast@gmail.com.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Return to Rural America Anthology seeking submissions

Charleston, WV – September 25 is the deadline to enter photographs, short stories, anecdotes and poems for the Steph F Enterprises, LLC, publication of anthology Return to Rural America.

Depicting life in Rural America, after having lived or visited in urban areas of the country, this anthology will highlight the culture, the people and the aesthetic qualities of rural America.

Short stories should be between 600-1,200 words while anecdotes must not exceed 300 words. Photographs can be submitted digitally or mailed. Entries will not be returned. The cost to enter is a minimal fee of $5.00 per entry. There is no limit to the number of entries per person. Checks or money orders should be made payable and mailed to: Steph F Enterprises, LLC, 343 Campbells Creek Drive, Charleston, WV 25306. Winners will be notified on September 31 by letter. All releases will be sent with the letter to be returned for publication.

This anthology is dedicated to those rural communities and people in appreciation they so well deserve for preserving the American way of life.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Poetry of the sacred contest: Merton Prize

(This news courtesy Rhonda Browning White)

Contest Guidelines
http://www.mertoninstitute.org/

Deadline for submissions: Received by December 31, 2010.

First Prize, $500; Three Honorable Mention Prizes, $100 each.

Winning Poems will be published in The Merton Seasonal, a publication of scholarly articles about noted spiritual leader Thomas Merton and will be posted on the Merton Institute web site:
www.mertoninstitute.org.

Only ONE unpublished poem type written in English may be submitted.

Please limit the poem to no more than 100 lines.

Type your name, address, phone number, FAX number, email address, and the title of your poem on a cover page. Attach (1) one copy of your titled poem to the cover page.

Submit your poem on a page with no identifying information. All identifying information should be on your cover page. Include a submission fee of $15.00 with the poem.

If you are submitting your poem via email, the poem must be sent as an attachment saved in Word 2003 or earlier version. Any other format will not be accepted.

Submit poem to: Merton Institute, 2117 Payne Street, Louisville, KY 40206 or email to: <vhurst(at)mertoninstitute.org> (replace (at) with @) as a Word 2003 document attachment. If mailing, please include a $15 check made payable to The Merton Institute. No Faxed entries will be accepted.

No poems will be returned.

Poems will be judged on literary excellence, spiritual tenor, and human authenticity.

Winners will be announced by April 1, 2011. Please visit the Institute website for contest results.

All contestants will be notified via email of the contest results.

Poetry chapbook contest: The Ledge

(News courtesy of R.S. White)

The Ledge 2010 Poetry Chapbook Competition
http://www.theledgemagazine.com/print%202009%20Poetry%20Chapbook%20guidelines.html

PRIZE: Winning poet will receive a $1,000 cash award and 25 copies of
the published chapbook.

SUBMIT: 16-28 pages of original poetry with title page, biographical note and acknowledgements, if any. Please include your name, mailing address, email address, and phone number (optional). Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere. Poets may enter more than one manuscript.

ENTRY FEE: $18. All entrants will receive a copy of the winning chapbook upon its publication in the fall of 2011.

NO RESTRICTIONS on form or content. The Ledge Press is open to all styles and forms of poetry. Excellence is the only criterion.

PLEASE include a SASE for the competition results or manuscript return. The winner will be announced in April 2011.

POSTMARK DEADLINE: October 31, 2010.

SEND ENTRIES TO:

The Ledge 2010 Poetry Chapbook Competition,
40 Maple Ave.,
Bellport, NY 11713

Friday, September 17, 2010

Call for submissions: Consequence Magazine

CONSEQUENCE Magazine: Call for Submissions

CONSEQUENCE Magazine is the literary, print magazine addressing the culture of war. We are interested in the personal and social consequences of armed conflict worldwide, and seek multi-national perspectives.

CONSEQUENCE is currently accepting submissions of exceptional short fiction, poetry, non-fiction, interviews, and visual art.

Submissions will be accepted until November 1, 2010.

For information about how to submit your work, please visit our website:

www.CONSEQUENCEmagazine.org

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Meredith Sue Willis's Books for Readers #134

(News courtesy of Meredith Sue Willis)

Meredith Sue Willis's BOOKS FOR READERS Newsletter # 134 September 8, 2010
Read this online at http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/booksforreaders.html. Images! Links! Colors! If you want to link to this newsletter, please use this permanent link : http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive131-135.html#134.


The Hamilton Stone Review # 22 Is Now Open for Poetry and Nonfiction Submissions. Go tohttp://www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr.html#submissions.



My big Victorian this summer was George Eliot's DANIEL DERONDA, a reread for me. This is one of the books you don't want to read at the wrong time. The right time, of course, is usually impossible to know in advance. I remember being intensely impatient with a lot of it on first reading, but for me, the summer of 2010 was the right time, partly because it's a real grown-ups' book, but also, it has some very personal aspects for me. The plot centers on two people, one a flawed young woman who makes a bad choice, and the other, a rather idealized young English gentleman who discovers he is Jewish. The personal for me is related to my own son's discovery that he was not Jewish (thanks to yours truly, the cultural Baptist) and then his recent conversion to Judaism.
I am also fascinated by the novelistic project Eliot took on of imagining being the Other– in this case, imagining being Jewish at a time when the upper classes in England looked down on Jews– and that a best case scenario. I was also interested in Eliot's exploration of the impact of history on individual lives."There comes a terrible moment to many souls," she writes in the penultimate chapter of the novel, "when the great movements of the world, the larger destinies of mankind, which have lain aloof in newspapers and other neglected reading, enter like an earthquake into...lives– where the slow urgency of growing generations turns into the tread of an invading army or the dire clash of civil war, and gray fathers know nothing to seek for but the corpses of their blooming sons, and girls forgot all vanity to make lint and bandages which may serve for the shattered limbs of their betrothed husbands." This happens especially to Gwendolyn Harleth, the flawed young woman. Gwendolyn would be happy simply to enjoy and consume the good things of her small world, but she is dragged brutally into both deep moral issues, and glancingly, into history as well.
On the other hand, Daniel Deronda, is actually seeking a place for himself in the history. He yearns to act in the world, and there is some indication at the end of the novel that he may succeed in doing this. Eliot uses him for purposes of the story, as the vehicle for her project of imaging what it would be like to discover you are part of an oppressed and despised Other in Victorian English society. She tries to imagine her way into being Jewish.
It is a truism in commentary on DANIEL DERONDA that the book is imperfect, and that the imperfection resides in how Eliot fails to embody Daniel and his ideals and his Jewishness. His love interest, Mirah is a sentimental construction, and in spite of Eliot's valiant efforts at being fair to lower class as well as upper class Jews, the pawn broker Cohen and his family are humorous and largely stereotypical. However– with the possible except of some of Mirah's brother Mordecai's Romantic proto-Zionist speeches, every page is sharp, interesting, and deeply worthwhile, flawed or not.
The story circles around Daniel, whose origins are mysterious, but who has been brought up as a perfect English gentleman– handsome and charismatic, a beacon of support especially for troubled women– but unable to fix on a career.
The second focus is Gwendolyn Harleth-- limited, selfish, not very likable but very charming. Gwendolyn makes a disastrous marriage with one of the creepiest but appallingly believable villains you'll meet in fiction– a pallid, drawling, indolent upper class sadist whose lifework becomes keeping his wife in bondage. This part of the novel is a perfect blend of idea and drama and character. Economic pressure leads Gwendolyn to make what she knows is a bad decision, and Gwendolyn's efforts to stretch her small capacities into maturity and responsibility make one of the best expositions of a character maturing in fiction. Missing, of course (this was published in 1876), is the sex life of Gwendolyn and her husband, but their physical relationship is a great lacuna that gives a resounding hollowness to the horror of the marriage.
Everyone who reads the book gets caught up in the Grandcourt marriage, but you are never unaware of the larger world: the economic failures that ruin Gwendolyn's family; the Civil War in America and its effect on mill workers in England; the many national rebellions and efforts to create new states in Europe and around the world.
This romance of nation building attracted Eliot as it did others of her class and education– the idea of homelands for discrete peoples, of freedom and wars of liberation. She found it natural that a great future for Daniel would be nation building for his people.
Simultaneously, she was struggling against the poisonous, narrow-minded, cultural anti-Semitism of the English. One novelistic problem she took on here, was how to make the shop-keeping Cohens human even though she herself appears to have shared the general British repugnance for loud voices, gesticulation, personal aggressiveness (as in an eager shop keeper). She deals with the Cohens with more than a little lingering condescension, but she does give them attractive and deep family affection.
A more successful solution to her efforts to combat anti-Semitism was to make her most important Jewish character essentially English, educated as her male readers would have been educated, with life experiences they could identify with. The question then becomes, is Daniel an English gentleman or a Jew? The set up, of course, is that Daniel has been looking for a purpose in life, and now he finds one by embracing his people, politically if not religiously.
Perhaps most interesting to me are two minor characters, Klesmer the musical genius and the Princess, a retired singer– and Deronda's reluctant mother. These two are distanced by being foreigners (Klesmer is very quirky: he makes faces and has broad gestures; the Princess's morals are dubious), but both of them are artists, and intensely attractive to Daniel and to the reader.
Several of the women characters in this novel work for a living, or have worked for a living: the Princess was a working artist, and Mirah teaches and sings for select small audiences. Gwendolyn Harleth chooses not to take a position as a governess, and this is part of her catastrophic personal decision. She also makes an abortive effort at becoming a self-supportive artist, and the scene where Klesmer tells her chances is one of the best in the novel.
Klesmer, it should also be noted, represents another solution to the situation of the Jews in England, which is assimilation; he marries for love the wealthiest heiress in the novel. The heiress, Catherine Arrowsmith, actually makes the offer to Klesmer, and there is a wonderful comic scene when her family tries to bring her to her senses.
One of Eliot's ongoing themes in all her books is about how women can fulfill their humanity. In this novel, she offers suffering as a way for Gwendolyn to grow, but she also has the strong rich woman who goes after her man, and she has women who are professional musicians. The only woman writer (Catherine Arrowsmith's mother) is a bit of a caricature, so Eliot never really creates a female character who does what she herself did, which was to write what I consider the best novels of Victorian England.
For more on DANIEL DERONDA, see Susan Carpenter's notes below.

– Meredith Sue Willis




SUSAN CARPENTER ON DANIEL DERONDA:

"I'm fascinated by DANIEL DERONDA. It's not as perfect a novel as MIDDLEMARCH, but there's a lot I've never found anywhere else.Disclosure: George Eliot holds a special place in my private author-pantheon. That nineteenth-century narrative voice is SO wise, SO insightful. I read her for therapy. I also read the I Ching for therapy, fwiw.
"What I love about DD: both stories. One is the education (really proto-feminist consciousness-raising) of Gwendolyn Harleth. The other is Daniel's identity search, which leads him to cross cultural and class lines, to expose and uproot from his subconscious the kind of British anti-semitism comparable to modern American institutional racism. The interesting thing about Daniel is that he DOES explore, relentless as Oedipus in Sophocles' play, from his early boyhood question about why the popes had so many nephews to the last, brutal-naked conversation with his mother. The interesting thing about Gwendolyn is ... well many things, but mostly this: she's being dragged kicking & screaming into awareness of who she is and can (must?) be.
"To be sure, some of the plot-elements (e.g. the romance between Daniel and Mira) seem too stale to be credible to us post-Victorians. And the character whose name I can't remember – Mira's brother [Mordecai], the proto-Zionist whom Daniel admires and learns from -- is downright tedious. I've read the book several times and keep finding more in it.
"Some of the critical material about it is interesting too. A psychoanalytic journal published an article suggesting Freud may have used DD as a model for effective psychoanalysis. F. probably read the book soon after it was published in the 1870s, long before he developed his theories. Daniels' relationship with Gwendolyn does have some parallels to the relationship between analyst and analysand: she comes to him and asks to talk; then she talks and he listens, and he's never quite sure what is going on or what to say, but the talking itself helps her get through her ordeals, and near the end of the book (as the reader is thinking, "Do these two have a future or not; they seem to be in love, but what about Daniel and Mira?") they let each other go with a sense that the therapeutic conversations have done their work.
Another critic has written that it's simply a double love story."




MORE BOOKS: RECOMMENDATIONS FROM JEFFREY SOKOLOW:

"I've just finished slogging through all 1100 pages of A LETHAL OBSESSION: ANTI-SEMITISM FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE GLOBAL JIHAD by Robert S. Wistrich. (The title is somewhat misleading, as the focus is primarily on post-World War II developments.) It's a thoroughly depressing read on several levels. Wistrich demonstrates in excrutiating detail the persistance and mutability of Judeophobia in Europe and the mideast. Especially depressing is his depiction of the emergence of a 'red-green-brown' (leftist/Islamist/neo-Nazi) ideological convergence if not outright alliance, in which Israel plays the role of the "international Jew," and traditional anti-Semitic narratives such as the blood libel and the supposed Jewish plot for world domination as depicted in the notorious 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' are transferred from the 'demonic Jew' to the 'demonic Zionist.' Perhaps the most depressing aspect of the book is Wistrich's detailed analysis of the genocidal and exterminationist ideology of what has been called, with some controversy, the Islamofascist movement. I call this analysis depressing because if Wistrich is right that the Islamists are little more than Nazis, then peaceful negotiation of the dispute between the Israeli and Palestinian nationalist movements over who gets which portion of what land is simply impossible if the aim of one side is to exterminate the other. Against all evidence to the contrary, I continue to hope that he is wrong, but I wouldn't bet the farm on my being right. God help us all if Iran gets the atomic bomb and decides to bring forth the hidden imam in a 21st century version of the Holocaust (the historical fact of which the clerical fascist regime persistently denies while working toward its completion). This important book deserves to be read, and answered if possible, so don't let my depression put you off."



ADDENDUM FROM JEFF– ANOTHER SUBJECT

"Last February, I reviewed a slew of books [See Issue # 128 http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive126-130.html#feature] about the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Just published and hence too late to have included in that batch is FREEDOM SUMMER: THE SAVAGE SEASON THAT MADE MISSISSIPPI BURN AND MADE AMERICA A DEMOCRACY by Bruce Watson. Many books have been written about SNCC's 1964 Summer Project, but none is better or more complete. Blow by blow, bomb by bomb, moment by moment, filled with vividly recounted incidents, Watson makes that summer come alive. Well written, thoroughly researched, incredibly moving, this is a powerful and ultimately inspiring book that deserves a wide readership."


RESPONSES FROM READERS

Ardian Gill writes, "In a recent BOOKS FOR READERS [Number 133, http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive131-135.html#nogreatmischief], AlSistair MacLeod's NO GREAT MISCHIEF was recommended. The odd title is a quote from one of the Brtitish/Canadian generals in the book who says, "It's no great mischief if a few Scotsmen get killed."
Macleod's book of short stories, ISLAND, is a marvelous portrayal of the lives of the Scot/Irish immigrants to the Canadian Maritimes."



DO YOU HAVE SOMEONE LOOKING AT COLLEGES?

Wanchee Wang has an informative blog about taking her eleventh grader to colleges– what they experiences, what they learned: http://bound4college.wordpress.com/about/ .



BLACK/WHITE RELATIONS IN WEST VIRGINIA: READING SUGGESTIONS FROM PHYLLIS MOORE


If you would enjoy reading books portraying Black/White relationships in West Virginia, , two are A VEIN OF RICHES by John Knowles and MISS 4TH OF JULY, GOODBYE by Christopher Janus. A VEIN OF RICHES opens prior to 1900 and the first two chapters are especially interesting. The portrayal of the wife as manipulated by her coal baron husband is A DOLL'S HOUSE and THE YELLOW WALLPAPER combined. There is description of a "colored" coal camp as well as a Black preacher, a former student of Booker T. Washington'.
You have probably read RED WHITE BLACK & BLUE: A DUAL MEMOIR OF RACE AND CLASS IN APPALACHIA by William M. Drennen, Jr. and Kojo (William T.) Jones. Jr. and BEETLECREEK: A NOVEL by Clarksburg's William Demby, and BLACK DAYS, BLACK DUST: THE MEMORIES OF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN COAL MINER by Robert Armstead as told to S. L. Gardner. In addition, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Homer H. Hickam, Jr., portray Black/White relationships in their respective memoirs COLORED PEOPLE and ROCKET BOYS.
Scholar Ancella Radford Bickley's MEMPHIS TENNESSEE GARRISON and her historical OUR MOUNT VERNONS provide interesting African American history in WW. Just republished is HEARTS OF GOLD: A NOVEL, a Reconstruction Era work by J. Mc Henry Jones. [See Issue # 131 at http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/bfrarchive131-135.html#131for Phyllis's notes on this book].
In children's literature, Sandra Belton's FROM MISS IDA'S PORCH is just about perfect and so is the work of Walter Dean Myers in NOW IS YOUR TIME! THE AFRICAN AMERICAN STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM. Belton describes children learning about segregation as they listen to stories being told on the porch of a neighbor and Myers describes his great-grand mother's enslaved on a plantation in what is now West Virginia.
And on a slightly different note, when people think of West Virginia they seldom think of a girlhood of an Irish Catholic in a steel mill town, complete with a parochial school. But that is the setting and the story for Anna Egan Smucker's children's book NO STAR NIGHTS. Fine artist John Holyfield (Clarksburg) is doing illustrations for children's books set in the era of the Klan and "white only" bathrooms.




DIGITALIZE YOUR BOOKS!!

:A Good Company I've used for turning my hard copy books that were written on typewriters (yes, yes, I know...) into .pdf or .doc files, is Golden Images, LLC at pdfdocument.com. Write to Stan Drew stan@pdfdocument.com, who is very responsive to email, and does the work for what seems like a reasonable price to me.



ANNOUNCEMENTS AND NEWS


PAOLA CORSO's new novel CATINA'S HAIRCUT is just out from The University of Wisconsin Press. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY calls it "A fable-like follow-up to GIOVANNA'S 86 Circles….the stories, individually, find moments of inspired, ethereal revelation."


PETER BROWN's new children's book CHILDREN MAKE TERRIBLE PETS! Is a giggle-fest of a story in which Lucy the bear finds a cute little boy in the woods and brings him home to be her pet. She names him Squeaker (because he doesn't speak Bear), and after getting off to a great start Lucy learns the hard way that some critters just aren't meant to be pets. Peter's book tour starts this week . See details are here:
http://www.peterbrownstudio.com/pb-booktour/pb-booktour.html


BARBARA CROOKER is one recent featuree at the Shreve Library in Shreveport, LA's poet-a-week project, see their website at http://www.shreve-lib.org/poemofday.htm. Barbara Crooker 's poem "Peaches," from her new book, was the Daily Poem at this site on August 31st: http://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=473


JIM MINICK's book THE BLUEBERRY YEARS has just been published. This memoir captures our story of creating and operating one of the mid-Atlantic's first certified-organic, pick-your-own blueberry farms, and recently, this book was picked by Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance as one of the best new books for the summer. Author Naomi Wolf describes THE BLUEBERRY YEARS as "delicious reading," and Robert Morgan calls it "an intimate visit to a delightful place with an inspired guide." Several other writers have given this memoir advanced praise, including Sharyn McCrumb, Ron Rash, Steven Hopp, Ann Pancake, Nina Planck, and Joel Salatin. Visit www.jim-minick.com to read all of these kind comments and to see his reading schedule.


Tricia Idrobo's short story "Evan's Photograph" was published in the Women Who Write literary journal GOLDFINCH 2010.


Phyllis Moore has new reviews out. The current issue of JOURNAL OF APPALACHIAN STUDIES, Volume 15 (2009) has a review she did of PALE LIGHT OF SUNSET by Lee Maynard. Also, the current issue of APPALACHIAN HERITAGE contains her review of HEARTS OF GOLD by West Virginia's J. McHenry Jones.



The eleventh issue of THE INNISFREE POETRY JOURNAL is now open for literary business at www.innisfreepoetry.org on a computer, iPhone, or iPad near you. Innisfree 10, featuring the work of John Koethe, continues to be available under Previous Issues, along with all of the first ten issues. Innisfree 11 takes a Closer Look at the work of Eleanor Wilner and includes new work from 36 other fine contemporary poets.



SPIRITUAL ENGINEERING has just been published by Books to Believe In. Author Thomas J. Strawser is an international engineer with a master's in psychology and many losses in his life that led him to seek practical solutions to his despair. Combining spirituality, psychology, and engineering have led him to transformations that he shares in this new book. See the web page at http://www.spiritual-engineering.com.


If You're Near Queens, New York: Saturday September 18, 2010 2:00 PM
Award Winning Poet Juanita Torrence-Thompson and Legendary Poet-Activist Sonia Sanchez will read at the Queens Library, 100-01 Northern Boulevard, Corona, Queens


Red Hen Press in Los Angeles http://www.redhen.org/RedHenPress.html# is offering a pre-pub discount for THE LAST JEWISH VIRGIN, http://www.janiceeidus.com/books-last-jewish-virgin.html Janice Eidus's new novel.


CHRISTIAN NOVELLA CONTEST hosted by www.higherfaithpublications.com is open till October 30, 2010. They are looking for manuscripts between 15000 and 30000 words. Themes are Historical or Contemporary romance, suspense, time travel and holiday. The contest is open until October 30 2010. They are also looking at novelette length items for their website, between 5000 and 15000 words, same themes as above, and for short stories etc for their online magazine. See the sample
at www.higherfaithpublications.com to see what we can use. Send items to higherfaithbooks@yahoo.com with a writers bio (new authors welcome) and a very clean and well edited manuscript as an attachment.


AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE

AWARD-WINNING INTERNATIONAL POETRY MAGAZINE seeks an interested buyer. CONTACT: poetrytown@earthlink.net



MORE ONLINE READING
John Birch, a veteran of the British army and many years of corporate communications posts a fiction or non-fiction piece every month at his blog, http://www.johnbirchlive.blogspot.com/ . Most of these have appeared in newspapers or periodicals on one side or the other of the Atlantic,


Library of America sends out a free story link by email http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/feeds/posts/default
These are a lot of fun– so far, I've read a Washington Irving devil story and Howard Zinn's piece "Finishing School for Pickets" about his students in the early sixties, young women at Spelman College who defied their elders and joined picket lines. Read the latter at http://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2010/07/finishing-school-for-pickets.html








ABOUT AMAZON.COM

The largest unionized bookstore in America is Powell's Books (http://www.powells.com). Some people prefer shopping there to shopping at Amazon.com. An alternative way to reach their site and support the union is via http://www.powellsunion.com. Prices are the same but 10% of your purchase will go directly to the [Powell's bookstore] union's benefit fund. For a discussion about Amazon and organized labor and small presses, see the comments of Jonathan Greene and others in Issues #98 (bfrarchive96-100.html#97) and #97 (bfrarchive96-100.html#98).



WHERE TO FIND BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS NEWSLETTER

If a book discussed in this newsletter has no source mentioned, try your public library or your local independent bookstore. To buy books online, I often use Bookfinder at http://www.bookfinder.com or Alibis at http://www.alibris.com. Bookfinder has a feature that tells you the book price WITH shipping and handling, so you can compare what you're really going to have to pay. A lot of people whose political instincts I respect prefer to deal with the unionized bricks-and-mortar bookstore Powells online at http://powellsbooks.com .

Other good sources for used and out-of-print books include Advanced Book Exchange at http://www.abebooks.com and All Book Stores at http://www.allbookstores.com.
For more comparison shopping, take a look at http://www.CampusBooks.com , another free comparison shopping website, particularly for textbooks, that says they search over two dozen bookstores to find the lowest prices in textbooks and more.

Other ways to get books: I have used and liked the paid lending library Booksfree at http://www.booksfree.com/ and Paperback Book Swap at http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php, a low cost (postage only) way to get rid of books and get new ones.



RESPONSES TO THIS NEWSLETTER

Please send responses and suggestions to Meredith Sue Willis at MeredithSueWillis@gmail.com. Unless you instruct otherwise, your responses may be edited silently for length, polished for grammar and spelling, and published in this newsletter.



TO READ BACK ISSUES OF THIS NEWSLETTER:

Go to http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/booksforreaders.html.



BOOKS FOR READERS is a free, independent newsletter written and produced by Meredith
Sue Willis. For a free email subscription, go here: http://www.meredithsuewillis.com/booksforreaders.html#newslettersignup

Copyright 2010, Meredith Sue Willis

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Rondeau contest (no fee): The Rondeau Roundup (DEADLINE OCT 2)

(News courtesy of R.S. White)

http://therondeauroundup.blogspot.com/

"Variations on a Theme from Shakespeare" Rondeau Contest: No Entry Fee!

The Rondeau Roundup blog is having a contest for the best rondeau inspired by the works of William Shakespeare!


Deadline: submitted by October 2, 2010.

Contest Rules:

Only one rondeau may be submitted per person. No entry fee. Top five rondeaus will be published on the blog (therondeauroundup.blogspot.com). The first place rondeau will also receive a $50 gift card from Barnes and Noble.

For this contest, I'm looking for rondeaus that follow the standard definition, as given on poets.org

"The rondeau's form is not difficult to recognize: as it is known and practiced today, it is composed of fifteen lines, eight to ten syllables each, divided stanzaically into a quintet, a quatrain, and a sestet. The rentrement consists of the first few words or the entire first line of the first stanza, and it recurs as the last line of both the second and third stanzas. Two rhymes guide the music of the rondeau, whose rhyme scheme is as follows (R representing the refrain): aabba aabR aabbaR."

Examples of the form: "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae, "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

No other poetic form will be accepted for this contest. Non-rhyming rondeaus can be entered, but the blog moderator's preference is for rhymed and metered rondeaus.

To enter, send a single rondeau inspired by the works of William Shakespeare to

rondeauroundup(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @) by October 2, 2010.

Winners will be announced on the Rondeau Roundup Blog on October 15, 2010.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Call for poems for anthologies: Magnapoets

(News courtesy of R.S. White)
Magnapoets will be publishing two themed anthologies in spring and summer 2011. All forms of poetry are welcome. Previously unpublished poems are preferred, but previously published material will be considered. Submissions will be open from September 1, 2010 – January 1, 2011. Send all submissions (up to five poems per submission) to <Magnapoets(at)gmail.com> (replace (at) with @).


Theme One, Series 3: Love. Romantic love, platonic love, unrequited love, absence of love, any and all explorations of the theme of love are welcome. Be sure to place "Love Anthology" in the subject line.

Theme Two, Series 4: Epiphanies explored as loosely or personally as the writer chooses. What experiences or events, large or small, transformed your life? Be sure to place "Epiphany Anthology" in the subject line.

No stipend fees or contributors' copies will be given. As with our first two anthologies, titles will be chosen from submitted poems. The authors whose poems inspired the titles will receive one complimentary copy each.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Ed Davis in New Anthology "Chance"

WV Writers member Ed Davis has a short story entitled "Convergence" that will appear in the upcoming literary anthology "Chance."

The second volume of the MotesBooks Motif Anthology Series, "Come What May," containing short fiction, nonfiction, poetry and song lyrics. Although the 136 contributors are from all over the world, many are southern and Appalachian, reflecting editor (and award-winning writer) Marianne Worthington's Tennessee roots. In length 323 pages, the handsome book is arranged into intriguing sections such as "Parallel Realities," "Happenstance" and "Strangers and Kin."

A few writers were familiar—Larry Smith, director of Ohio's Bottom Dog Press', along with recent Antioch Writers Workshop faculty Cathy Smith Bowers and Joyce Dyer—but most writers were new to me. And there's something for everyone in this handsome paperback. The book can be ordered for $15 plus postage at www.motesbooks.com.

Davis's story concerns a woman on the run from her estranged mother and her lover, from whom she's hiding a secret. On her journey into the past, she has a ghostly encounter with an elderly couple in a mall built on farmland that was an important part of her past. Their chance meeting may provide the key to Colleen's future.

*Writers, note that the editor is collecting material for the next anthology on "Work" with a deadline of November 1, 2010. For details,
see: http://motesbooks.com/MOTIF-Call-For-Submissions.html.

Healing Through Creativity Festival with author Cynthia Cox

Healing Through Creativity Festival will host an “Incest Survivor Awareness” presentation by author Cynthia Cox on September 18th at 3 PM.

The town of Bramwell, WV; will sponsor the Healing Through Creativity Festival. This community event will provide entertainment and constructive resources to assist survivors of trauma. HTC provides an opportunity for all survivors of any trauma to share creative media. This community service is provided free to the public.

Cynthia Cox, author of The I in Me, will share imaginative outlets of healing for all Incest Survivors in this presentation. This exposition will create public awareness, prevention and support for individuals affected by this childhood abuse trauma.

An Author Excerpt from The I in Me:
“One medication is not a cure for all body types and neither is the diagnosis. There is no antidote that can tell a person how to help themselves. However, by sharing what works for one person may help another to better understand that they are not alone in these conflicting issues.

We are all survivors in life who should bond together for a brighter tomorrow in everything that we accomplish within ourselves and for others too.”

The Healing Through Creativity Festival will be held in Bramwell, WV on:
September 17 – September 19, 2010. This event is made possible by trauma survivors for trauma survivors.

Please visit: http://www.healingthroughcreativity.org for schedule updates and for submission forms to participate in event.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Greenbrier Valley Theatre's Literary Tea 2010

Sit back, relax, enjoy hot, fresh tea, and listen to an hour of great works of literature read by local writers and theatre artists on Thursday evenings in October at Greenbrier Valley Theatre. The Teas begin at 5:30 pm and offer a soothing experience for the mind; a relaxing hour of reading, complete with tea and coffee and tasty treats.

WV Writers representative for the September 9 tea will be Bob Clark, 2nd place winner for the Writers Wall Prose at the 2010 WV Writers Annual Writers Conference.

GVTs Annual Literary Tea Series is in partnership with the West Virginia Writers and, in addition to guest-artist readers, it features some of the winners of the West Virginia Writers competition.

GVT invites the Community to join them for their Annual Autumn series of Literary Teas. Admission is free and no reservations are required.

Thursday, Sep 9 thru Thursday, Sep 16 at 3:30 PM

GVT’s Literary Tea Series

free

Greenbrier Valley Theatre | 113 E. Washington Street | Lewisburg, WV

www.gvtheatre.org

304-645-3838

Dear City Letters Still Wanted for Upcoming Podcast

Back in July, we worked with a producer of National Public Radio's show State of the Re:Union to drum up support for their "Dear City" letters segment to help them find material for their upcoming show based in West Virginia. We thought it would be fun to do something similar for our podcast and, with their consent, are going to do so.

The Dear City Letters are basically what they sound like: people writing a letter TO their city. These can be written from a place of love, anger, humor and beyond, addressing the likes and dislikes or breaking misconceptions. As part of our collaboration, the WV Writers Podcast opened its voicemail hotline to listeners to phone in such letters. We forwarded those we received to State of the Re:Union and are planning to also use them for an upcoming podcast.

If you would like to participate with your own Dear City letter, please do so, for there is still time.

Here are your instructions:

  • People can feel free to be as creative as they'd like... the only constraint is to keep it under 400 words.
  • All the letters should start the same way with "Dear _____ [your town name here],” i.e. if you live in Parkersburg, you should start “Dear Parkersburg.”
  • Also, remember to refer to your home in the second person (You). We want these to sound like you're speaking directly to your home.
  • Once your letter is written, phone up the WV Writers Podcast voicemail hotline so we can record it. The number is 304-661-9745.
  • When you call, you will have 2:45 sec to record your dear city letter. If your letter runs longer, feel free to call back and record the rest.
  • If you mess up, just say 3…2… 1 and start where you left off; we can edit out the errors.

Online journal seeks current events poetry

Online Journal Seeks Current Events Poetry
http://www.newversenews.com

THE NEW VERSE NEWS covers the news of the day with poems on issues,
large and small, international and local. It relies on the submission
of poems (especially those of a politically progressive bent) by
writers from all over the world.

The editors update the website every day or two with the best work
received. What's best? A genuinely poetic take on a very current and
specific news story or event.

See the website at http://www.newversenews.com for guidelines and for
examples of the kinds of poems THE NEW VERSE NEWS publishes. Then
paste your submission and a brief bio in the text of an email (no
attachments, please) to <nvneditor(at)yahoo.com> or
<nvneditor(at)gmail.com> (replace (at) with @). Write "Verse News
Submission" in the subject line of your email.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Members Matter: Deborah Richard

WV Writers member Deborah Richard has a number of poems that have either recently been published or whose publication is forthcoming. Here are a few of the places they have been published or will soon be appearing.

The Shine Journal: "The Path" (January 2010) – "The Path" can still be viewed at www.theshinejournal.com; choose "Archives 2010" and then "Richard, Deborah" under the first list of names, which is January


The Storyteller: "The River" (June 2010)


Two-Lane Livin' Magazine (Simple Living in Central WW): "Kindred
Spirits" (June 2010)

Grab-a-Nickel (Alderson-Broaddus College): "Capitol Street" and "Last
Words" (Fall 2010)

WestWard Quarterly: "Crape Myrtle" (Summer 2010)

Holler (Princeton Poetry Project): "Switchboard" (January 2011)


Eleutheria: The Scottish Poetry Review (United Kingdom): "Zephyr"
(Feb/March 2011) www.scottishpoetryreview.com


Deborah Richard was born and raised in West Virginia but moved to the south as an adult, following her love of the ocean. After twelve years as a report analyst for a healthcare organization, she is currently caregiver for her mother. She is a member of South Carolina Writers' Workshop and West Virginia Writers, Inc. She received an Honorable Mention in the 2010 Joyful! Poetry Contest. Currently, Deborah is working on a memoir about growing up in the hills of West Virginia.

Monday, September 06, 2010

New Contest Listing "Short Story Writing Contest - Family Friendly" No Entry Fee!

Short Story Writing Contest - Family Friendly

Family Friendly Short Story Writing Contest. NO ENTRY FEE and Cash Prizes!

1st Place - $100 plus a one-year membership to the CBI Clubhouse, the
place writers go to get published!

2nd Place - $75

3rd Place - $50

Deadline is Sept 15th, so hurry and submit your story!
________________________________

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Pre-Orders now open for Llewellyn McKernan's new poetry chapbook "Pencil Memory"

Recent WV Writers Podcast featured reader Llewellyn McKernan will have a new chapbook of poetry entitled Pencil Memory published December 3, 2010. This is a limited edition collection, and the number of pre-publication sales will determine the size of the press run, so please reserve your copy now. Also feel free to send copies of this e-mail on to others who might be interested.

Here is what some nationally known poets are saying about Pencil Memory.

"I've long admired Llewellyn McKernan's bold, somewhat terrifying, and often thrilling poems. She turns her spiky imagination to one of the writer's most basic tools, and plays deft variations on that many-angled instrument. I especially like how the pencil itself composes the final movement of this inventive chapbook sonata." -- Michael McFee, author of Shinemaster.

"In this marvelous sheaf, every poem makes its point, wise or wistful, always wittily. Llewellyn McKernan has had such serious fun making her lines that we wholly engage with them, following her lead as it loops across the page with pert good humor. Delightful. Indelible." Fred Chappell, author of Shadow Box.

Order: Pencil Memory by Llewellyn McKernan
$12 per copy plus $1.00 each for shipping, a discount available only during the
pre-publication sale period: August l, 2010 to October 15, 2010.

Send shipping address along with check or money order made payable to:

Finishing Line Press
Post Office Box 1626
Georgetown, KY 40324

Or order online at: www.finishinglinepress.com

Click "New Releases and Forthcoming Titles" or directly at
http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm

Finishing Line Press accepts all credit cards for online sales.

For regular mail orders, they only accept Visa and MasterCard.

Use the following form for mail order...

Please send me ______copy/copies of Pencil Memory by Llewellyn McKernan, at $12
each (Shipping is only $1 per copy).

Name___________________________________________________________________
Address_________________________________________________________________
City, State, Zip Code_______________________________________________________
_____ Enclosed is my check, payable to Finishing Line Press, for _______.
_____ Please charge my credit card $__________ ______Visa _____Master Card
Name as it appears on the card_____________________________
Credit Card number_______________________________
Expiration date________ Card verification number (3-digit number on back of card, far
right.

Saturday, September 04, 2010

Juanita Torrence-Thompson Poetry Award

(Sponsored as a fundraiser for CONCEIT MAGAZINE)

Juanita Torrence-Thompson is an award-winning POET, and author of 6 books including her latest, BREATH-LIFE. Her expertise has been sought out to judge multiple contests throughout the state of New York and on the national level.

First Prize - $50.00 Second Prize - $30.00

Third Prize – 20.00

Fourth Prize - 1 yr subscription to CONCEIT MAGAZINE

Fifth Prize - 6 mth subscription to CONCEIT MAGAZINE

Sixth Prize - 3 month subscription to CONCEIT MAG.

$7.00 entry fee up to 2 poems

ALL writers welcomed

Previously published poems accepted

POEMS MUST BE ORIGINAL AND IN FREE VERSE – NO CENTOS -- 45 Line Limit

Please send name, address, phone and email addresses for notification of winners.

All poems entered will be considered for publication in Conceit Magazine.

SUBJECT: HURRICANE KATRINA and/or HAITI

DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2010

Email entries and queries to:

Conceitmagazine2007@yahoo.com

PayPal users pay to conceitmagazine@yahoo.com

Check website: http://www.myspace.com/conceitmagazine

or

Snail mail entries and reading fees to:

Perry Terrell, Editor

Juanita Torrence-Thompson Poetry Award

P. O. 761495, San Antonio, TX 78245

or

Perry Terrell, Editor

Juanita Torrence-Thompson Poetry Award

P. O. Box 884223, San Francisco, CA 94188-4223

(Make payable to: PERRY TERRELL)

*********************************************

HORROR STORY DIGEST

I, Perry Terrell have noticed that some of you like to try and scare me. Well …. You have succeeded. Oooooooooooooooo!!

Now let's do a HORROR STORY DIGEST and make your literary colleagues too scared to turn their lights off when they go to bed at night. Oooooooooooooooooooooo!!

DEADLINE: September 20, 2010

No entry or reading fee. Contributor's copy awarded.

However, additional copies are $3.00 each.

Send pictures to be printed with your work. (Optional)

E-mail entries to:

Conceitmagazine2007@yahoo.com

PayPal users pay to: conceitmagazine@yahoo.com

Visit: http://www.myspace.com/conceitmagazine

Snail mail entries and extra copies fees to:

Perry Terrell, Editor

Horror Story Digest

P. O. Box 761495

San Antonio, TX 78245

or

Perry Terrell, Editor

Horror Story Digest

P. O. Box 884223

San Francisco, CA 94188-4223

(NOTE: Entries can be emailed or snail mailed)

(Cash, check or money orders – Make payable to PERRY TERRELL)

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO SUBMIT AND BE INCLUDED.

Let's just have fun !!!

Friday, September 03, 2010

Call for submissions: PRIME NUMBER

(News courtesy of R.S. White)

PRIME NUMBER is a new literary magazine featuring distinctive fiction
(flash and short stories), poetry, and non-fiction, as well as book
reviews, craft essays, and interviews. The magazine will be published
quarterly online and in a print annual. In addition, issues will be
supplemented regularly with our Prime Decimals, consisting of flash
fiction and short poems. Contributors will include both emerging and
established writers. The magazine's goal is to publish distinctive
work, regardless of theme or style.Prime Number is published by Press
53.

The first issue, online in July 2010, features work by Kevin Wilson,
Roy Kesey, Fleda Brown, Anne Sanow, James Harms, and many others:
http://www.primenumbermagazine.com/Issue2.html

We are accepting submissions now for our regular update feature--the
Prime Decimals--and also for the October issue. See the submission
guidelines at:
http://www.primenumbermagazine.com/Submit.html

Poetry contest: Bloodroot (SEPT 15 DEADLINE)

(Information courtesy of R.S. White)

http://www.bloodrootlm.com/contest.html

Three prizes of $200, $100, $50, three honorable mentions and publication in 2011 Bloodroot Literary Magazine edition.
CONTEST GUIDELINES:

* The competition is open to any poet who writes in English.
* Manuscripts should be typewritten or computer-printed on white 8-1/2" X 11" paper.
* We can only accept hard copies.
* Electronic submissions will not be accepted.
* Submit original, unpublished, free verse, 10 lines to 2 pages.
* Entry fee: $15.00 for three poems, $5.00 each additional poem.
* Final judge: Claudia McIsaac
* Your name must not appear on the manuscript.
* Please provide name, address, email address, titles of poems in a cover letter.
* You may include SASE for results and SAS postcard for confirmation (Optional).
* Entries must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2010.
* Manuscripts cannot be returned.
* Please no simultaneous submission to other publications.

Mail manuscript and entry fee to:
The Editors
Bloodroot Literary Magazine
PO Box 322
Thetford Center, VT 05075

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Christian Novella Writing Contest Information

(Information courtesy of R.S. White)

Higher Faith Publications is hosting a Novella Writing Contest at their website. www.higherfaithpublications.com.

There are 10 Cash prizes available.

They are looking at manuscripts between 15000 and 30000 words.

Themes are Historical or Contemporary romance, suspense, time travel and holiday.

The contest is open until October 30 2010, but the sooner you send
your manuscript the sooner you may be selected to have your manuscript
carried on our website as well.

*********************************

They are also looking at Novellette length items for our website. These
are between 5000 and 15000 words, same themes as above. They sell for
$1 each.

**************'
They are also looking at short stories etc for our FREE online magazine.

See the sample issue at www.higherfaithpublications.com to see what we can use. We
pay a small fee for these items.

*******************************
Send your items to
higherfaithbooks@yahoo.com with a writers bio (new authors
welcome) and a very clean and well edited manuscript as an attachment.

Please make sure your name, email address, phone number etc are all
on the manuscript as well as the email.


We are also open to childrens books that can be put into pdf format
we do not provide illustrations, to sell at our sister site
www.hshighlights.com

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

2010 Passager Poetry Contest for Writers Over 50

2010 Passager Poetry Contest for Writers Over 50

Submit work: September 1, 2009 - April 1, 2010
Results announced for 2010 contest (projected date): July, 2010

Winner receives $300 and publication. Honorable mentions will also be published.

Reading fee: $20, check or money order payable to Passager
Reading fee includes a one-year, two-issue subscription to Passager.
Submit 3-5 poems, 50 lines max. per poem
Introduce yourself with a cover letter and brief bio.
Include name and address on every page.
Include a Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope (SASE) for notification of winners.
Poems will not be returned.
No previously published work.

Simultaneous submissions to other journals are okay, but please notify us if the work is accepted elsewhere. No email submissions, please!

If you need more information, send us an email: (replace (at) with @), or call: 410.837.6047.

Send all submissions to:

Passager
1420 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-5779